Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 16 November 2021

PE1870/I - Ensure teachers of autistic pupils are appropriately qualified

I have read over the replies from the various charities and Scottish Government to my petition and I still feel that teacher training in autism is the only way to ensure that young people with autism receive the best quality education and care.

The autism teacher’s qualification would give them knowledge, understanding and skills to maximize the opportunities open to children and young people who have autism. It would improve their life chances and enable them to fulfil their potential.

The psychiatrist Lorna Wing is quoted by Mary Warnock (Special Education Needs: a new look 2005 page 39) that in her clinical work she has met able autistic adults who carry the misery of their mainstream school days with them into adult life, sometimes with disastrous consequences. The fact is that, if educated in mainstream schools, many such children are not included at all. They suffer all the pains of the permanent outsider. No political ideology should impose this on them.

Teacher training would help autistic children to reach their potential not just academically but would include their mental and emotional wellbeing. This would give autistic children confidence and independence to make a successful transition to adulthood, progressing into further education or employment. This would then help with supporting them on to independent living.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published new data that shows just 22% of autistic adults are in any kind of employment. This is a shocking figure, which is even lower than previously suggested in surveys.

At the moment autistic children are being failed and the statistics are indicating this, more and more autistic families are becoming disillusioned by the school supports and want to see their children being understood in education, too many are excluded, on part-time or flexi-learning.

In the Scottish Government’s reply, it states that education authorities are required to identify, provide for and review the support for pupils with autism and that any person working with a pupil with autism can draw attention to additional support requirements.

The above only addresses additional support issues in education and what might be available to support the child in school. This does not support children to be taught in class or address teachers having specific autism qualifications to teach them educationally.

The Scottish Government highlight staged intervention. Staged intervention relies on the person making the identification, assessment and planning having the specialist autism knowledge to put in the required supports. As you can see from the various surveys like Not Included, Not Engaged and Not involved autism children are still facing barriers in Education.

The reply states that the Scottish Government believes the autism action plan is sufficient to achieve the petition’s aims. I do not believe that the actions set out in the autism plans are sufficient to meet the needs of autistic children and young people. Autism Spectrum Condition is a very complex condition. Nearly three-quarters of autistic children have other medical or psychiatric conditions. Co-occurring conditions can appear at any time during a child’s development some only appearing in adolescence or early adulthood.

Co-occurring conditions are:

Anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, downs syndrome, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette’s syndrome, seizures and epilepsy, selective mutism, clinical depression.

Anxiety is common in autism about 40-60% of autistic children will have anxiety.

Pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may have difficulties with verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal difficulties may include a delay in the development of language, comprehension difficulties, literal thinking and speech, poorly modulated intonation and delivery of speech, echolalia (echoing speech), unusual vocabulary, and repetitive use of language.

Non-verbal difficulties include difficulty in understanding social context, empathising with others and appropriately interpreting social cues, body language and facial expressions. Gestures are often stiff, stilted or over-exaggerated.

Problems with social behaviour will sometimes arise from difficulties with understanding the changing context of social situations and with theory of mind or understanding the intentions of others. This may present as difficulties in interpreting facial expression, gestures and vocal intonation. Also, as pupils with ASD tend to be literal thinkers, they will have problems with knowing the rules that govern social behaviour and understanding jokes or idioms.

Pupils with ASD can become anxious with changes in routine and have problems with sharing attention, turn-taking and with interactive, imaginative play with others.

Therefore, difficulty with participating in the activities or enjoyment of others is a particular challenge to teachers as it affects the student’s ability to share and have varied interests, adapt behaviour according to the situation, accept changes in rules and routines, accept others’ points of view, and generalise learning.

Pupils with ASD may also experience erratic sleep patterns, display unusual eating habits, engage in self-injurious or aggressive or hyperactive behaviour, exhibit an unusual posture or gait, and have irrational fears or phobias.

Teachers cannot be expected to understand all the above conditions and how they affect a child without the necessary specialised training and qualifications.

The Additional Support Needs tribunal for Scotland 13th Annual Report 2018 states that they dealt with:

• 67 Placing requests 41 involving children with Autism
• 12 Co-ordinated Support Plans requests 8 involving children with Autism
• 11 Disability Discrimination claims 3 involving children with Autism

They stated the same year on year pattern is repeated here, with children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder forming the majority of applications to the tribunal.

Research has been conducted by three leading charities into the experiences of autistic children missing school. Over a third (34%) of those who responded to our survey reported that their children had been unlawfully excluded from school in the last two years – with a quarter (22%) of those parents saying this happened multiple times a week.

• 13% of those asked had experienced of their autistic child being formally excluded from school in the last two years.
• 28% of those asked had experienced of their autistic child being placed on a part-time timetable in the last two year.
• 85% of those asked said their autistic child did not receive support to catch up on work they had missed.
• 72 % of those asked felt that school staff having a better understanding of how their autism affects them, including their communication needs could have helped their child.

This highlights that the professionals and teachers having autism knowledge and training would benefit supporting autistic children in school, unfortunately it would not give teachers the necessary qualification and ability to teach an autistic child or young person.

If the Scottish Government agree that Blind and Deaf children require specialist trained, qualified teachers why do they deny children with autism the same level of support? We maintain that autistic children require the same consideration.